Middle-aged people with sleep problems show more signs of poor brain health, experts say. Neurology specialists in a recently published study argue that there is a connection between the quality of our sleep and the condition of one of the most important organs in the human body.
The extensive study, recently published in the journal “Neurology”, carried out by scientists associated with the American Academy of Neurology, lasted over a dozen years. More than half a thousand people took part, whose average age at the beginning of the experiment was 40 years. Its aim was to check the impact of sleep problems on the condition of our brain.
“Our study, which used brain scans to determine the brain age of participants, suggests that poor sleep is associated with almost three years of additional brain aging already in midlife,” said lead researcher Dr. Clémence Cavaillès of the University of California, San Francisco.
Scientists emphasize that there is no evidence that poor sleep accelerates the aging process of the brain. However, their work shows that how we sleep is related to its condition.
How the experiment went
A total of 589 people participated in the study and completed surveys regarding the quality of their sleep before it began. Thanks to them, scientists identified six ailments: short sleep, poor sleep quality, problems falling asleep, difficulty maintaining sleep, waking up early in the morning, and drowsiness during the day.
Later, the subjects were assigned to three groups. Patients in the low group struggled with one problem, in the medium group with two or three problems, and in the high group with more than three problems. At the beginning of the study, the majority of people, as many as 70 percent, belonged to the first group, 22 percent to the second group, and 8 percent to the last.
After five years, the participants completed the same questionnaires again. After 15 years, scientists performed brain scans on them.
The influence of sleep quality on brain age
Specialists analyzed scans of the subjects' brains for the degree of shrinkage – its level corresponded to a specific age. Machine learning, one of the tools based on artificial intelligence, was also used to determine the health status of this organ.
After taking into account other factors such as age, gender, high blood pressure and diabetes, the researchers estimated that the brains of people in the moderate group (with two or three conditions) were about 1.6 years older than those in the low group. . In the case of people from the third group, this difference was 2.6 years.
The authors of the report listed the main factors of brain aging as: poor sleep quality, problems falling asleep, waking up early in the morning and difficulty maintaining sleep. Their impact was significantly visible in people who had had these ailments for five years.
“Our findings highlight the importance of addressing sleep problems early in life to maintain brain health, including maintaining a consistent sleep schedule, exercising, avoiding caffeine and alcohol before bed, and using relaxation techniques,” said Kristine Yaffe, M.D., of the University of California. in San Francisco.
The problem of poor sleep quality affects not only middle-aged people, but also younger people. “Future research should focus on finding new ways to improve sleep quality and examining the long-term effects of sleep on brain health in younger people,” Yaffe said.
American Academy of Neurology
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